Arthur Pentelow ,was Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, was an English actor, who was best known for playing Henry Wilks in Emmerdale Farm from 1972–91.
Pentelow's love of drama happened whilst he was studying Shakespeare at grammar school, but he started his working life as a cadet clerk in the local police force. He later served in World War II in the Royal Navy and did radar work in Normandy. After peace was declared, Pentelow returned to Rochdale, where he became a student teacher. He started acting as an amateur with the Curtain Theatre Company, before becoming a member of the Bradford Civic Playhouse Theatre School. Between his theatre work he sold ice-cream and delivered laundry. He later went on to work in repertory theatre at the Bristol Old Vic, Guildford and Northampton, before joining the company at Birmingham, where his fellow actors included Derek Jacobi, Rosemary Leach and Albert Finney.
Before appearing in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm in '1972', he had already appeared in Coronation Street as an old friend of Hilda Ogden, played by the actress Jean Alexander, as well as a sporting serial called United! as the football supporters' club chairman. Pentelow also appeared in 1969's notorious gangland series for Granada "Big Breadwinner Hog" as the unflappable Detective Inspector Walker.
Pentelow was often described as a modest and unassuming man, by his fellow actors. It was a great shock when he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 67, whilst driving from his family home in Birmingham to commence filming Emmerdale back in Leeds.
